Sunday, May 8, 2011

Jaguar’s hybrid supercar to enter production

The luxury Lifestyle blog (the home of luxury Lifestyle) presents Jaguar’s hybrid supercar to enter production.

Jaguar is to put its hybrid supercar concept into production, it announced May 6.

The British luxury marque will begin building the C-X75, originally shown as a concept at the 2010 Paris Motor Show, as part of a limited-edition run of 250 models.

The C-X75 was one of the stars of last year’s Paris show, packing futuristic twin turbine generators which weighed 50 kg each to power its four electric engines and reach a top speed of 205 mph (330 km/h).

Now, the model will be built in association with Formula 1 manufacturer Williams and will bear the Jaguar marque, and it will have a price tag to match its pedigree, starting from £700,000 (around €790,000).

The chassis will be made of lightweight carbon fiber with aerodynamics and carbon composite manufacture technology coming from Williams, and will offer a top speed in excess of 200 mph and a 0-60 mph (0-97 km/h) time of under three seconds.

However, the powertrain is set to be very different from that showcased in the concept version, which was a micro-turbine — in effect a miniature jet engine that could be fired to produce electricity.

While Jaguar says it will continue to develop the technology in the “medium-term”, the C-X75 will use a more traditional small-form combustion engine alongside an electric motor on each axle.

The combination will give the vehicle an all-electric range of 50km and low-emission operations of less than 99g/km in carbon dioxide.